Illuminating unit for railway signals



July 30, 1935. c LARSON 2,009,504

ILLUMINATING UNIT FOR RAILWAY SIGNALS Filed March 2, 1951 12514577257 LH Zia/507$ g4 IMQMV'QI Patented July 30, 1935 g omen STATES ILLUMINATINGUNIT FOR RAILWAY SIGNALS Carl H. Larson, Elkhart, Ind., assignor to TheAdlake Company, a corporation of Illinois Application March 2, 1931,Serial No. 519,354

1 Claim. (01. 1'l7329) This invention relates to railway signals anddown over all three and held in place'by the has for its objects tofurnish a resilient support nuts 2|. This forms a rugged terminal stripto for both the signal and the emergency lamp; to which are attached thestandard American Railprovide a convenient terminal board; to supportway Association binding posts 22. A thumb nut 5 a relay adapted toconnect the emergency lamp; 23 is fitted upon each rod and has aconstricted 5 and to combine these elements in a single rugged shankportion 24 which is engaged by the squared unit which may be inserted inor removed from end loop 25 of a spring 26. The other end of a standardrailway signal casing with a minithe spring is hooked through a disk 21of insumum of labor and with no danger that the parts lating materialwhich is thus freely suspended will be out of line, or the lamps out offocus. between the posts. A lamp socket 28 fits through 10 These andother objects and advantages will the disk 21 and a collar 29 thereonbears against become apparent from the following description theemergency lamp support 3|. The support when read in conjunction with theaccompanyis bored to receive an emergency lamp socket 32 ing drawing. inwhich and both sockets are held in place by the nuts Fig. l is avertical section through a standard 33, 33. The support 3| electricallyconnects the 15 railway signal casing showing, however, the shells ofboth sockets and the flexible common lens and the illuminating unit inelevation; lead thereto is connected at the point 34.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the unit; For clarity in illustration, inFigs. 1, 2 and 3, Fig. 3 is a detail showing the method of susthe wireshave not been shown, but their location pending the lamp sockets; andand arrangement is indicated by Fig. 4. A relay 20 Fig. 4 is a schematicwiring diagram of the 35 of a conventional type is mounted in thehousdevice. ing [8. Preferably, between it and the emer- The casing,generally indicated by ID, has its gency lamp is inserted an impedancecoil 36 rear end closed by the door II and bears a lens which is moreparticularly set forth in a com or roundel l2 affixed in the oppositewall. A panion application. The function of the im- 25 furtherdescription is not thought necessary since pedance coil is to equalizethe voltage applied to the casing is now well known. r the emergencylamp with that applied to the When the casing is applied to dwarfsignals, main lamp in the circuit of which the relay coil the signal isoften subjected to severe and sudden 31 is included. If desired, thehousing I8 may shocks. The apparatus is very close to and be providedwith a head 38 over which a pressed 30 often directly connected to thetrack. The small metal cover 39 may be slid which gives furtheravailable space within the casing and the cramped protection to therelay 35. or squat locations in which they are often placed While it ispreferred to employ a relay of the makes it desirable that theilluminating appatype above mentioned, it is understood, however,

ratus should be detachable as a unit and cleaned, that any suitablerelay may be employed such 35 adjusted and inspected outside of thecasing itfor example as the relay disclosed in the Laney self.Furthermore, the very sharp shocks which et a1. Patent No. 755,890,issued in 1904. are imparted to dwarf signals make it desirable The longvertical adjustment which is possible that an emergency lamp be placedalongside the on any thumb nut supplies practically a universal 40 mainsignal lamp and be held in readiness to movement to the central lamp andby it the sig- 40 light upon the failure of the signal lamp. nal lampmay be set exactly in the focus of the Emergency lamps have heretoforebeen atlens l2. It is not desired that the emergency tached rigidly tothe signal casing and conselamp should occupy the focus since a drop inquently have been subject to all of the shocks the brilliancy of thesignal is the tell-tale which 4:5 imparted to the casing itself. Theresult has indicates that the main lamp has failed. Acbeen that thefilament of the emergency lamp cordingly, the emergency lamp is locatedahead y be broken before the Signal p burns t. of the focus, but in theaxis of the lens. It is to The illuminating unit comprises a base platebe particularly noticed that it is necessary only [3 which is attachedto the signal casing by to remove three nuts to free the illuminatingmeans of the bolt 14. Rising from the plate and unit entirely from thecasing, viz. the nut 4| on 50 attached thereto by the screws [5, or byany the bolt M which holds the entire assembly to other suitable means,are three threaded rods IS. the casing, and the nuts 22, 22, which holdthe Bored ears l'l, integral with the relay housing power leads to theterminal board. is are slid over one of the rods and a plate 19 Theemergency lamp has the same measure of of insulating or other suitablematerial is fitted protection against shocks as does the main sig- 5nal, and since the relay is opened by current and closed by gravitydrop, the particular fixed position of the relay casing assures itsoperation at all times.

What I claim, therefore, is:

In an illuminating unit, comprising a pair of lamp bulbs for alternativeuse and means for controlling the relative action of such bulbs, in

combination, a base plate, means for removably securing the plate withina casing, upright posts secured to the plate, means for mounting thelamps on the posts, and a housing for inclosing the first-mentionedmeans fixed to one of the posts.

CARL H. LARSON.

